Celebrations
by kookith
Summary: A collection of oneshots with an update everytime I've received a targeted no. of reviews as a 'celebration'. More of an encouragement towards myself and a thanks to my readers, really. XD NeumannxNatarle. Two years late, but the 50th hit is finally here!
1. Author's Note

**Celebrations**

Due to the tiny amount of reviews I'm getting, I've decided that it's worth celebrating with a new one shot every time I hit a certain number of reviews as an encouragement to myself and thanks to my readers. It's lame, I know. XD

By the way, if anyone's got some suggestions or requests for this pairing, feel free to ask by either leaving a review or send me a personal msg via my profile page, and I'll try my best at it!

* * *

**10****th ****Hit:** 10 Things Natarle Hates About Arnold Neumann  
**25th Hit:** As It Was Supposed To Be  
**50th Hit:** 0.8 Seconds

Next Hit: 75 Reviews


	2. 10th Hit

**10 Things Natarle Hates About Arnold Neumann**

1. She hated his grin. More specifically, his sly grin. Every time she saw that grin she knew he was up to something, and she also knew from experience that whatever he was planning, it involved her. But in a disappointing contrast, she never even once figured out what his plans were before they happened, which more than often had rather drastic consequences.

2. She hated the way he whispered into her ears. Each time he did that it sent shivers down her spine, and it felt like he was draining all her energy from her body, or worse, like he had total control over her.

3. She hated how he would wrap his arms around her waist; not too tightly, but surely secure enough to keep her within his embrace. She hated how it made her feel like she was trapped, having nowhere to run, but she was not sure if she really did want to run away in the first place anyway.

4. She hated it when he would now and again suddenly pull her in for a kiss in the middle of the corridor when no one was around, sometimes just a light peck on the lips, other times backing her against the wall with a passionate kiss. She would always tell him off afterwards, warning him to never do it again, not that he ever listened though. She did not even dare to imagine what would happen if someone saw them in one of these occasions.

5. She hated how he pampered her. He knew very well that she was a disciplined person, but he also knew exactly the things she could not resist. He would always give her his portion of desserts whenever they ate together. He would hide sweets in her drawers, leave them on her desk or shove them straight into her mouth, depending on her mood. He would plan the duty roster in a way so that he would every so often be on the same shift as her, as well as getting off shift the same time she does, so that they could spend more time together. He would be there for her right away whenever she needed help, even if it was something as minor as finding her favorite pen. This list could go on forever. And it makes her doubt herself if one of these days she would finally lose control over her discipline.

6. She hated it that whenever she was talking to other male crew about something outside work, he would find an excuse to interrupt and take her away, only for her to find out that he was to occupy that tiny extra bit of free time of hers himself.

7. She hated the way he would look at her as she passed by when he was surrounded by a group of people. He would pretend at first that he was only greeting her out of courtesy, but then he would shoot her this funny look that would shift everyone else's attention towards her, as if telling them about their secret relationship without him even speaking out. And she would pray in her heart once again, hoping that the people had not figured out what his look meant yet.

8. She hated every single time he stayed over in her room for the night. Although he never really did anything more than a few hugs and kisses to her, sleeping beside him was pretty bad already; it made her nervous enough to keep her sleepless throughout the night.

9. She hated the kiss marks he left on her neck, just a bit below her ears and merely covered up by the collar of her uniform. She knew he did it on purpose; it was like he was literally, as the term suggested, marking her his.

10. Out of all the things she hated about him, nothing compared to her hatred for him not believing her when she told him she hated him. And she probably hated him even more for that because she knew he was right in guessing that her words were not true anyway. Yes she was contradicting herself, but she was also confused; was it even possible to love someone so much that one could not even find the tiniest thing to hate about him?

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**A/N:** Yay!!! Finally got my 10th review!!! Many thanks to those who've put me or my stories on their favorites or alerts list!!! Also thanks the people who gave me my first 10 reviews: 

CrimsonHowls  
00idiot  
Smokey-eyed-Beauty  
HeavyarmsBuster-01  
LokiLeysmith  
Infinite sky  
Mimi the pink Kitty

It's pretty sad really, celebrating my tenth review only after 2&1/2 months since my first story was up. I've posted 3 stories and a total of 9 chapters so far, and all I've got is 10 reviews. Oh well, at least better than nothing, since I do realize I'm writing for a 'niche market'. XD

Back to the fic itself. Got this idea when I was reading one of the official GS fan books. Kuwashima Houko (the seiyu for Natarle) was laughing about Natarle being a person who would blush really easily, so I thought I could sorta make a list of the different ways of how Arnold would tease Natarle, just for fun. Yeah I'm being mean to Natarle. XP

Anyways, next hit is the 25th review!!!


	3. 25th Hit

**As It Was Supposed To Be**

The coming of Natarle's death was unusually peaceful. The brightness that shone upon her was amazingly warm, and it reminded her of Arnold Neumann.

She never meant to leave him, but it was not really her choice back then. And she knew better anyway; her duty was more important than her own wishes.

If things did not end this way, they would probably have their chance at living the peaceful life they always dreamed of. She might even willingly give up her career, and become a dutiful wife, waiting patiently at home for her husband's return every evening. She knew that being herself this was very unlikely, but somehow she did manage to picture this once, and surprisingly, it was quite a pleasant scene.

Oh, talk about her marriage. Before she left the Archangel Arnold did ask her if wanted to move in with him after the war. She still remembered how serious he looked at that moment. It was not exactly a proposal, but it was already one of the happiest moments in her life. She did wonder for a bit what it would be like to actually get married with him. But it was just a thought back then, because she knew very well that there was much more waiting for her on the battlefield.

Yes, the war. Exactly what she was trained for. If it was any other situation, she would know clearly how she should deal with it. But when it came to having her own lover and comrades as opponents, she never ceased to doubt whether she was doing the correct thing.

Because even if she had won this battle, even if the EA had won this war, he would not be there to welcome her back and share her victory.

If she did not leave the Archangel, then this would not be happening. Now she sort of understood why she was taken off the Archangel; not only because she was the daughter of the famous Badgiruel family, but also because there was the other ship waiting for her.

How she regretted leaving the Archangel. As a loyal soldier to the EA ever since she enrolled, she despised all its traitors. But when it came to the Archangel, all she wanted was for them to go back with her. Now, at the verge of her death, she wondered how it might have been if it was she who betrayed the EA. Maybe she would not have to die so soon, and surviving till the end of the war. How nice it would be if she could have her chance in settling into a peaceful life with the person she loved. She was not asking for that much, all she hoped for was to be able to wake up every morning, still in his arms.

And every now and then she would remind herself how amazing it was for them to be living this simple yet wonderful life after a war.

They would probably have a child, or maybe two. If their firstborn was a boy, his name would perhaps be Jonathan. But if it was a girl, she would definitely be called Margaret; that was what Arnold insisted.

But that was just her dreaming. Of course she believed that the two of them would have such a happy life together if given the chance, but now come to think about it, she never realized that there was also the possibility that she and Arnold would not have ended up together. Maybe they were not meant to be after all.

Such a pity, she would never get to know how it was supposed to be.

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**A/N: **I wrote this quite a while ago, but I didn't really want to put it up as a one-shot, so I decided to add it to this collection. (I did want to write something sweet for this hit, but oh well. Will do that next time.) It's inspired by a Cantonese song by a female singer called Denise Ho (nicknamed HOCC) that I absolutely **adore**. Dunno how to translate the title into English, but it's a pretty sad song about a girl's final thoughts before her plane crashes, and the lyrics are like they were taken out from Natarle's mind for the AxN bit. Seriously. 

Oh the babies' names. My favorite part. I've always pictured Natarle having a daughter called Margaret. Coincidently in the lyrics of this song the girl was wondering what names she would have called her children, and she came up with the name Meg for her daughter, a short form of Margaret. I was like, COOL!!! But for the boy's name, I wanted it to be something like Alexander at first, but the lyrics suggested something like John, and I thought, Jonathan is quite a nice name, so there you go. And he will be a hyperactive little boy, and the younger Margaret will be a very timid and adorable girl. That's DEFINITELY how it's gonna be!!! XD

Anyhow, many thanks to my reviewers!!! I seriously love you guys!!!

CrimsonHowls  
Knives91  
haruna saki  
Red and Gold Phoenix  
Eye of the Hawk  
LokiLeysmith


	4. 50th Hit

**0.8 Seconds**

It had to be somewhere. She remembers herself putting it specifically here, on this side table beside the sofa, so that when she was finished with her work she could sink back into this comfortable seat, and continue from where she had left off.

She had looked all around the living room, and then the kitchen, and even out to the garden, but it was still nowhere to be found. Things do not simply disappear into the thin air, nor do they suddenly grow legs and walk, so if it was not in all these places, where could it be? She stood and thought for a moment. Upstairs. Not that there should be any reason for the item to be found up there, but well, it does not hurt to try.

Up the stairs, and into the study. Nope. Guest bedroom. Nope. Guest bedroom number two. Nope. Guest bathroom? Oh well, could try. Still no. She reached the end of the corridor, and the only room left in front of her was the master bedroom. She opened the door, and saw her husband lying comfortably on their bed, reading the book in his hands. "Arnold, have you seen _my_ book?"

He looked up, "What book?"

"The one I started last week. It's-" she stopped abruptly, realizing as she stared straight at the book in his hands, "-the one in your hands."

Arnold glanced at the cover, then back at her. "Oh," he replied with a slight surprise, but showed no intention in returning it as he directed his attention back to the pages.

"What do you mean by 'oh'?" Natarle scowled as she headed towards him, "I'm not done with it yet, could I please have it back?"

He held the book up to cover his grin as he looked at her from corner of his eye. "But I just got to where it's starting to get interesting," he said with fake enthusiasm in his words, then continued pretending to ignore the woman standing by his bedside.

She let out a tired sigh. For them two to have similar tastes in books, amongst other things, was something she usually appreciated. But now, certainly not. She had definitely not missed the fake tone in his voice, and she caught him eyeing at her, his eyebrows arched and with a teasing smirk on his face. _'Oh, so this is what it's about.' _It was a hobby of his of some sort — to annoy her for a bit every now and then, and to amuse himself with whatever the consequence was. Even now she never really understood why he liked doing this so much, because for her, it was pure torment.

"I promise I'll be quick," she asks again.

He closes the book with a snap and holds it up, pauses for a moment as if he was thinking hard, and then decides, "No."

That was it. "You're not even reading it!" she cried in annoyance as she jumped right onto him, reaching to grab the book from his hands. She was quick, but him even quicker, catching her by her waist and pulling her down while managing to keep the book out of her reach at the same time. Every time she felt like she could almost touch the book with the tip of her fingers, he moves it a tiny bit away, making it just slightly more difficult for her.

'_This is so childish!'_ she could hear her own voice screaming in her head, yet all the while still trying her best to get the book in Arnold's hand as he laughed in amusement at every effort she was making. The struggle between them seemed never ending, with her patience reaching an end she let out an exasperated cry as her ultimatum, "Arnold Neumann!"

Almost immediately Arnold dropped the book to the floor, and in her moment of distraction he flipped her over and pinned her to the bed with a victorious smile on his face. His mission had been accomplished with great success, because right from the start it was for him never about the book, but was simply for his own pleasure to see the stubborn look on her face when she does not get what she wants, an expression he found ever so adorable that made him unable to resist from teasing her whenever given the chance.

"I don't mind letting you finish it first, if you want it so badly. But-" he took a small pause, quietly admiring as her glare changed into an annoyed-yet-hopeful pout. Leaning closer — so close that he could feel her ruptured breathing — he whispers, "don't you think you need to show some gratitude when asking for a favour?"

"P-please," she said, or she thinks she did, because she could no longer hear herself clearly. The heavy sound of her fast pounding heart was monopolizing her hearing, each beat getting faster than the last, hitting harder the last, like it was completely out of rhythm, out of control. Did he have to be this close?

"And?"

"…Thank you."

He let out a slightly evil sounding chuckle. "You know I'm gonna need more than that."

If he had not already made it obvious enough what he wanted, he sure did spell it out for her when he closed in even more, their noses already touching, and lips only one kiss apart. All she had to do was take that one step. One simple step. Because he knew she would never take the initiation, and making it this easy for her was probably the closest shot he had to getting that kiss from her.

"N-no," her words came to him in a big disappointment, "I don't give in to extortionists."

He was just about to complain when she started wriggling her wrists out of his grasp, still refusing to admit defeat. "Let me go, Arnold Neumann!"

It kind of hurt for Arnold to know that she felt so strongly against having to kiss him. It was in a way already expected, given that she was the kind of person who would blush even at the sight of him in an unbuttoned shirt, but it still was a bit disheartening to know that he would probably never be at the receiving end of a kiss between them. He let out a long, heavy sigh as he sat back up and let go of her hands, then moved beside her and sluggishly picked up the book from the floor.

"There you go," he said as he handed Natarle the item she wanted so desperately. Yet she sat still in her place with a stunned look on her face, as if she had completely forgotten about the book already, now only interested in understanding his sudden change of attitude. He looked at her with a questioning frown, "Do you still want it?"

She reached out a tentative hand, taking the book from him without breaking any eye contact. "Th-thank you," she remembered to say. She was curious. Although she would hate to admit it, the truth was they both knew that when Arnold wanted something bad, he would always find a way to get it, and not matter how hard she tried, she would always unwittingly fall victim to his little schemes. So how come this time he let her off so easily? She quickly replayed the scene in her head, and then realized _maybe_ she had been too harsh with her tone. She felt her heart sink a little.

"Arnold," she leaned just a little bit closer to him, her voice much softer than the one she was using before, and with a hint of worry in it. "I didn't mean to yell. I'm sorry… Are you mad at me?"

He raised his shoulders into a half-shrug, and his lips curved into a weary smile. "No, I'm not mad. I'm just a bit…upset. That's all."

And she immediately understood what he was upset about, because it was all too obvious in those dimmed emerald eyes of his. She saw disappointment in them; not the childish kind of disappointment, those with puckered brows and a huge pout to emphasis the point, but the restrained yet genuine, deep-hearted kind of disappointment.

And her heart sank a little more.

Without giving it much thought her hands reached up, clutching onto his shirt near the shoulders and lightly pulling him closer. His eyes widened in both surprise and anticipation, and he did not dare to move, as if he was afraid he would startle her and cause to her change her mind. She inched closer and closer, her hands slightly trembling, and suddenly, she noticed her heart was beating so furiously that she feared it might just collapse any given moment. She remembered the last time she felt like this, and strangely enough, it was only two minutes ago. Which afterwards her heart started sinking into a bottomless pit, or at least that was what it felt like. She swallowed hard; her poor heart was on a roller coaster ride.

Taking in a deep breath as her last self-encouragement, she pulled Arnold closer down, shut her eyes, and quickly landed his long awaited kiss…

…on his forehead.

His anticipation instantly turned into astonishment, then when he recovered from the initial shock, he laughed.

"What?" Natarle asked with the brightest blush on her face.

He had to suppress his laughs in order to not upset her, or make her feel more embarrassed than she already did. "Nothing," he said, pulling her into his embrace as they both fell flat onto the bed with Natarle landing on top of him. "Oh well, I guess I'll have to take it one step at a time."

She wanted a bit more explanation for his words, but seeing him lying there calmly with his eyes shut and a satisfied grin spread on his face, she decided against it. She rested her head comfortably on his chest, and slowly closed her own eyes as well, savouring this peaceful moment between them.

Everything was so quiet and still, so tranquil, all except for that soft rhythm against her ear that goes _'thump, thump'_.

The one rhythm that she treasured so dearly; the very foundation of this life she now lived.

Arnold's fingers slipped into her dark, silky hair, fiddling about for a bit before moving down smoothly along her neckline and back up, his other hand holding onto hers, with her fingers locked tightly between his.

"You're rather quiet… What are you thinking about?" He asked after a rather long moment of silence.

She did not answer immediately, pondering if she should share with him these feelings that she did not even know how to explain to him. But then, he himself was at the core of these emotions she most cherished, and she did not want to hide any of it away from him. "Right here, I can hear your every heartbeat clearly."

"Heartbeat?" He asked.

"Mm-hmm," she gave a small hum as confirmation. Then came another short pause as she mentally sorted out how she was going to explain it all to him. Very slowly, she let her words come out to him, as if giving herself time to make sure she said the first part right before allowing the next to follow.

"Being able to hear your heartbeat is like…finding the proof of my existence. That day, back on the Dominion, I was so afraid that it was all going to end there, that I would die in that battlefield and I never see you again. Yet here I am now, with you, living this life which at one point I thought would only be a dream that could never come true." The scenes leading up to that fateful battle replayed themselves in her mind, and she returned his grasp of her hand with a stronger one of her own, fighting back the very intense fear she was so familiar with that was now creeping up at her again. But in spite of her fear she knew everything was going to be fine, because she was here, where he was. "Hearing your heartbeat reminds me that all of this is real; it's no longer a dream, it's happening. Your heartbeat is…the sound of what's most precious to me."

Arnold pulled his hand out of her hold, only to free both his arms so he could wrap them around her with all the strength he could manage, and landed a tender kiss on the crown of her head. She was not the kind who found the profession of love an easy thing to do, and sadly he could still count with just his two hands the number of times those three simple words came out from her lips. But this confession was — although unrehearsed, he figured — perfect poetry, the most heartwarming love song, and so, so, _so_ much more than just 'I love you'. To hear such beautiful words coming from her, his heart had completely melted into a pile of mess, and he doubted he would ever recover.

"So if my heartbeat is the proof of your existence, then I swear, that my heart will continue to beat for you — and you only — till the very last second of my life. I won't let you to fade away."

She raised her chin to look at him. Her cheeks were still flushed, and instead saying it out loud, her timid but most grateful smile substituted as her reply.

'_Thank you.'_

**

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**

Author's Note:

Pffft. This update is two years late. Yeah you read it right. Two. Whole. Friggin. Years. Dang, I'm lazy. But then that's not news anymore, is it?

This chapter was inspired by a few lines from the lyrics of the song from the last hit, but while in the last one Natarle was dying, this one's a what-if-she-didn't-die. Don't ask me to explain how, haven't got it figured yet. :P Cookies for anyone who could guess what the title means, by the way.

My 26th to 50th reviewers, which I thank immensely for their support and pray they'd forgive me for the lateness of this review hit which is dedicated to them! Sorry to those who I couldn't reply to your reviews because you weren't logged in, but still, thanks so much for your reviews! And crap, I'm already only 7 reviews away from my next hit. I need inspiration!

CrimsonHowls  
the last redshirt  
Knives91  
haruna saki  
HeavyarmsBuster-01  
CommandoDude  
Infinite sky  
Kurenai yuhi-sensei  
MOI  
who cares

Oh by the way, did I tell anyone I've got a twitter account now? Exclusively for my updates progress, including here and artworks on DA & pixiv! And I guess if you're fed up with waiting you could more easily kick my butt there to get me working, cuz I do check daily… Check my profile page for the link :D


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